A few years ago, my two-year-old grandson tripped and fell on his toothbrush as he was trying to brush his teeth. The traditional hard plastic toothbrush punctured the roof of his mouth and came within centimeters of entering his brain. As a mother of 8, I knew that this all-to-common occurrence of babies falling on hard toothbrushes should be preventable, but how?
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This Octo-Brush has large, durable, soft token bristles that help young teethers soothe their sore g...more ...

Baby Banana - Brushes and Teethers

As these questions were on my mind, I discussed them with my daughter-in-law, who is a dental hygienist and with her insight the idea for a flexible infant toothbrush was born. She taught me about the safety specifications we would need, such as a slight “C” shape to our brush.
We brainstormed about ideas of fun things that might fit that “C” shape and came up with the Banana! I had some experience from previous products my company was developing with plastics and other materials. I consulted with several engineers and determined that 100% medical grade silicone would be the best material to serve our “flexible” needs.
Next, I went to Taiwan—the silicone capital of the world—in 2004. There I met with the company that would eventually become our manufacturer. We had our toothbrush FDA registered, patented and tested with private labs.
We knew we had created something unique—a flexible toothbrush and teether in one—which did not exist in the market at that time. We launched our product at the American Academy of Pediatric Dentists Convention in Washington, D.C. May 2008. There was lots of excitement for the product at this convention, and we began selling our toothbrush in pediatric dental offices and baby boutique stores.
Since debuting the Baby Banana Brush, domestic and foreign sales have allowed us to branch out into even more flexible toothbrush products, like the Baby Banana Teether (similar to our original toothbrush, but with handles), and the new Baby Sharky Brush.
We have also partnered with Spry tooth Gel and Dr. Blooms Chewable Jewels to create fun and useful “kits” that include our Baby Banana Brush with other unique dental products for babies and kids.